Fracture
by megaFAUCET
Summary: This autumn, the Cordyceps outbreak celebrated its twentieth anniversary. But for the surviving population, there isn't anything to be celebrating. As four survivors trek across the wasteland, they'll learn to never give up and that bravery can be found in the most unlikely of places.
1. The Escorts

Author's Note:

This is a FanFic I've been planning for a while, but in the grand scheme this was actually put together fairly quickly. I became enchanted by the game The Last of Us; its deep and charismatic characters, the brutally realistic situations, and the journey into humankind and our natures. This narrative will be a multi-chapter endeavor and a full story. Expect several winks, nods, and allusions to the game as I am trying to keep this story directly seated in the canon of the video game. My story, however, will follow brand new characters.

Please note that due to the rating of the source material, this is an M-Rated Fan Fiction for sequences of intense violence, frightening descriptive imagery, and strong language. I felt that one of the most immersive components to The Last of Us was its brutal, uncensored, realistic portrayal of killing as a means to survive. This vulnerability created the legitimate feeling of what was at stake, and is something I wish to retain in my narrative. Therefore, consider this as my warning; this story is intended for mature viewing.

As this account on FanFiction is under the same screen name as my Deviant Art account, megaFAUCET, I'm going to be using the two together in tandem for the duration of this story. Posted on my Deviant Art profile will appear development and concept art I devised while planning the story out, as well as illustrations of key moments and individual Chapter Cover Art. I've had a lot of fun writing this, and as I type this it is still a work in progress. I hope you all enjoy it!

Sincerely,

megaFAUCET

* * *

 _Winter is the most unforgiving season. It takes the most from you, and it gives the least back. I can remember a time when the first snowfall meant good things; snow days, Christmas Break, snowball fights. Now, the first snowflakes signify one thing only, that life is about to get a lot harder. It doesn't matter how many first snows I see, they'll always give me the chills in more ways than one._

 _I don't know why I'm starting this journal so far after the outbreak. Seems like anything interesting that people would want to read about has already happened. Or been chronicled by some ten-year-old with crayons._

 _My name is Eric Mason. I am an orphan, I am a nomad, and I am a survivor._

 _This autumn, the outbreak celebrated its twentieth anniversary. But for us, there ain't a damned thing to be celebrating. Two decades. Two long decades. Will this ever end?_

Eric stared at his handwriting for a while, tapping the pencil absentmindedly on the side of his journal. The actual process of writing, the physical act of putting his thoughts on paper, soothed his mind and offered him a slight bit of solace in this chaotic world. That was probably his primary motivation for writing in it; if it were ever found it'd probably just be used as kindling. He closed the journal and stuffed it into his backpack, leaning back on the old chair and feeling it creak in slight protest. He felt a small tightness in the lower third of his back and he shifted, relieving it. His thirty years had not been kind, and he felt much older than he was, grimacing before the pain abated and he relaxed again. He scratched his head, thick brown hair ruffling in his fingers.

It was rather strange to be back in the Denver area. While his hideout was a considerable distance from the Denver Quarantine Zone, he could still see its massive walls. When the morning mist was just right, the cool light gray of their concrete structure made their silhouettes bleed into the horizon, as if the zone disappeared altogether. The old capital of Colorado wasn't an unbelievably dense metropolis, but it was still odd to see it so deserted. During his scavenging runs deeper into the city to find food, supplies and medicine he could still see remnants of the initial struggle that he remembered experiencing himself so vividly in Golden. Ferns punched through the concrete and embraced whole cars, abandoned in the chaos and mayhem of the outbreak's first months. He could gaze into old coffee shops and see chairs knocked over next to tables where menus still rested awaiting a customer that would never come. Water had bled through and flooded the streets in lower lying areas, and the vegetation reclaiming the architecture was thick and lush. The world had gotten lonely.

"Wake up, old man."

It was indeed a lonely world. But she made it a little better.

"We good?" Eric turned his head towards her as she clambered through the window.

Emma unholstered her pistol and set it on the table, reaching for her backpack. "For now. Air's getting a lot colder out there, though. But I think the snow will wait a little longer."

"It won't now that you've said that." Eric stood, donning his own backpack. He walked over to the table and the two of them silently began pushing bullets into their magazines. Occasionally, the two would fall silent, but still know exactly what the other was thinking. There were still a few hours left before sunset, and it was foolish to scavenge in broad daylight this close to a Zone. Just at dusk, when the shadows began to close in, had proved to be the most opportune time to search for supplies. He chose not to speak of what lay ahead of them. He knew that today wouldn't be an easy journey.

* * *

"Not even close." Emma said as she closed the steel locker. The two were now several dozen blocks from their hideout, the Q.Z.'s walls now a faint wisp in the distance. They had learned quickly that the less urban areas tended to have more things that were left behind, and their mostly empty backpacks were slowly being filled with random assorted items. In addition to their relative wealth of supplies, the outskirts of the cities could sometimes harbor less Infected, as the routine noises of military activity closer to the Zones drew the fungal beasts further into the city. They weren't alone in their knowledge of this tactic, though. Some survivors routinely patrolled these areas in search of unsuspecting passers. They differed from Hunters, though, who found a permanent place to call home and defended it. These groups of survivors which Eric had nicknamed Skimmers were quick, efficient, silent, and lethal.

Emma opened a cabinet, the dim beam from her flashlight dancing around inside. "Also not even close. What is this, painter's tape?" She tossed the weak, blue roll behind her back in disgust.

"I doubt we'll find any actual duct tape," Eric said without turning around, pushing aside rotten food in an aged refrigerator. "I'm going to hit the next house before we leave."

"Let's do that sooner rather than later. Sun's already down," She said. "Watch yourself."

These small communities were not unlike the one that Eric had been born into. The memories tried crawling back into his brain but he forced them back down, focusing on the task at hand. He rummaged through the cabinets and opened drawers. He peeked under the tables and lifted couch cushions. He threw a pair of scissors and three screwdrivers into his pack and turned to explore the other side of the house.

 _"Shh!"_

Eric froze mid-step. It was quiet, almost imperceptible, but he heard it. Somewhere upstairs he swore he heard a voice, a hasty command of stealth.

"Find anything?" Emma crawled through a window behind him.

Eric held his hand up and she fell silent. The two of them listened closely, the smallest sounds now raucous crashes. His hand still raised, Eric turned his head to look over his shoulder at Emma.

"What?" She mouthed.

Eric paused, waited, and pointed upwards. He began slowly walking towards the staircase. Everything was a noise to be focused on and analyzed in a split second. The brush of the gentle breeze through the windows as they stirred the tattered curtains, the soft crush of his boots on the carpet, the gentle creaking of the wood underneath, the sound of metal sliding against denim as Emma drew the Sig Sauer from her back pocket, and the quiet mechanical click as she flipped the safety off.

Approaching the top of the stairs, Eric motioned with his hands and the two parted to search opposite ends of the second floor. He stooped and quietly unsheathed his broad double-edged boot knife before continuing to make his way through the hall. Even with low, frigid looking clouds slinking along the horizon, the sliver of sunlight yet to sink into slumber pierced through the windows more easily on the upper floor. Golden rays bounced off of the yellow wallpaper speckled with tiny white diamonds. The entire hallway seemed to be aflame. His breath, visible in the chilly corridor, floated lazily away from his mouth. He didn't get far, though, before he heard a short and high-pithed scream from behind him followed by a rapid volley of gunshots.

"Emma!" Eric whipped around and charged towards the sound and burst into the room just in time to hear a shaky yet brave voice speak.

"Give me one reason, lady."

Eric stood, surprised and feeling slightly useless as he clutched his knife, which felt small and pitiful now. Emma had her pistol aimed at a young boy holding a military-issue assault rifle. Behind this boy was a girl, likely of the same age, grasping an ax that seemed larger than she was with its head pointed in the same direction. Smoke wafted from the barrel of the rifle and Eric's eyes briefly darted to the far wall, three fresh bullet holes puncturing the yellow wallpaper.

The boy's mouth was clamped tightly in aggression, his blue eyes staring at Emma as bright blonde hair fell from his head in an untidy fashion. The University of Eastern Colorado Ram was emblazoned on the left sleeve of his dirty gray shirt, and the faded yellow short-sleeve cuffs were frayed. Behind him the girl's bright blue eyes, wide open, seemed to quiver behind a small tuft of hair that fell over one side of her face, the blonde strands identical in hue to the boy's. Beneath a thick gray zippered sweatshirt, her pink tank top was smudged with dirt, but Eric could barely make out the _Savage Starlight_ text racing across the fabric at an angle.

Eric could see the fire in Emma's eyes, burning underneath random strands of short, strawberry blonde. Her pistol moved not an inch, its sights buried in the direction of the boy's skull. She spoke gently, but remained physically emotionless, her gun still held true. "How about we _both_ settle down."

The boy's bright blue eyes flitted to Eric. "If he moves I'll blow his head off."

"Something tells me this wouldn't be your first kill." Emma said, again gentle in vocal meter.

"What difference does that make?" It wasn't really a question, more just a statement.

 _This kid's got some guts._ Eric thought to himself. If he was in Emma's position, he probably would have already shot the boy the second he opened fire. No sense taking a risk that the three rounds in the wall were the last ones in the magazine.

But Emma remained calm, very slowly lowering her pistol and pointing it at the floor. "It can make a lot of difference."

"Kodi…" The young girl spoke softly. "She lowered hers."

Kodi, apparently the boy holding the rifle, paused for a long moment. Finally, his grip relaxed and he lowered the gun, but remained alert. "What do you want?"

"Supplies," Emma said simply. "Why else would we be up in some random house."

"Who sent you to find us?" Kodi asked.

"Ourselves."

"How many others are coming?"

"It's just us two as far as we know."

"As far as you know?"

Emma narrowed her eyes. "Look, kid. We're just trying to find basic supplies. We're by ourselves. I don't really care if you believe that or not."

"I believe you." The girl said abruptly.

 _"Jessa!"_ Kodi hissed.

The girl glared at him. "Maybe they can help us."

"We don't even know who they are."

Jessa pointed at Emma. "He yelled 'Emma' before he came running in. So that's Emma."

"I don't care what her name is."

"You know we can hear everything you're saying, right?" Emma said dully.

Kodi looked up at her, a pained distrust in his eyes. "Just leave, okay? Please."

Eric was suddenly taken aback by the boy's shift in mood from aggressive and confrontational to borderline desperate. He gestured to his partner. "Em…"

Emma held her gaze on the boy for a moment. "Fine. We'll go. Eric, let's head back."

She flipped the safety on her pistol, holstered it in her back pocket, and walked out of the room as if nothing ever happened. Eric followed. He could hear the two children talking in low voices as he descended the stairs.

"Mom and dad told us not to trust anyone."

"No they didn't, stop telling me that!" Jessa whispered furiously. "I heard them. They said to be safe, and we'll be safe with those two."

"How do you know that?"

"They didn't shoot at us when they saw us. They're at least different than most other people we've seen."

"Jessa, they're just two random people."

"So are we…"

There was a pause. "Do you honestly trust them? You're crazy. We just met them."

Another pause. "It'd be better than hiding in this stupid house another night."

Emma had stopped at the bottom step and was standing listening to the conversation upstairs. Her shoulders seemed to sag a bit.

Eric had known her for long enough to be able to predict what she was thinking with a fair amount of accuracy, and he reached out to her. "Don't. There's nothing we can do for them."

Emma looked at Eric over her shoulder, her expression suddenly turning hard as she spoke quietly. "Do you even hear them up there? They're scared, they're probably by themselves, and the way they talk I don't think their parents are just out scavenging."

"What if they're just a decoy for a group of Skimmers?"

Emma glared at him. The conversation had gone quiet upstairs, and the cool evening breeze stirred her fiery bangs. She brushed it out of her face. "They're siblings, Eric. That by itself should mean something to you of all people."

Before Eric could object or even react, Emma had removed his hand from her shoulder and was pushing past him and walking back up the stairs. He heard her footsteps stop as she arrived at the room.

"You two need a place to stay?"

* * *

"Is this place safe?" Kodi looked around the dingy old apartment.

"It has been for as long as we've been here." Eric told him.

Kodi walked over to the window, cautiously looking out the dirty glass. "How long is that?"

"Few days."

"Psh…" Kodi mumbled. Jessa went over to him and leaned her ax on the ground against the window frame. She put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

The apartment was a modest and small space. An old moving blanket was spread out on the floor and the carpet was torn in multiple places. Smudges of what looked like blood were spattered on a wall in the kitchen, and one of the windows was boarded up with aged and cracked wood. A box of ammunition sat atop a round wooden table, with a knife plunged into the top and a baseball bat propped up next to it. Blue wallpaper peeled off in large strips, exposing the wood underneath, some of it rotten.

Eric set his backpack down and eased himself into a chair, staring at the two siblings. "So what are we doing with you two? You need escorted through the city? You need to get some place in particular?"

"I thought… I don't know. Maybe we can help each other." Jessa said in a small voice.

"You want to get rid of us already?" Kodi said.

Emma, sitting on the floor not far from the kids, shot Eric a look as she broke a small cracker in two. "We're not used to having company that doesn't have some sort of urgent mission. We help get people into or past the city, whether it's going to the Zone, escaping it, or just traveling through."

"Why?" Jessa asked innocently.

 _Oh boy…_ Eric thought. It had been a while since he'd been around a young person, with their constant slew of questions.

"Why?" Emma said, unprepared for an answer to such a simple question. She searched for an answer.

"Honestly there ain't a whole lot more to do these days," Eric said, pulling his boot knife out and reaching for a sharpening stone. "The people coming through here don't have an easy job. Just traveling in general is dangerous as hell. We try to make the journey a little easier on them, and in exchange they'll give us food, ammo, clothes or stuff like that."

Jessa looked slightly confused. "No, I mean, why would anyone want to _leave_ a Quarantine Zone?"

Emma paused, memories flooding her mind, before answering. "Everyone has different reasons. Trust me; the Q.Z. isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's not a great way to live."

"Oh." Jessa said, noting the hint of sadness and remembrance clouding Emma's eyes. While confused about Emma's apparent repulsion to the Quarantine Zones, she chose not to press any further at this time and watched Kodi set his assault rifle down gingerly. He made the weapon safe, removed the magazine, and popped the round out of the chamber.

"Let's just say we've both been in that situation before, and it wasn't easy at all." Emma said, observing Kodi's weapon handling before taking a small bite of her cracker.

Jessa fiddled with her shoelace for a moment. "So you've only been here for a few days. Where were you before?"

"All over," Emma said, becoming more relaxed. "All around Colorado, into Wyoming and Utah a few times, lots of places."

Kodi spoke up now. "How come you didn't stay in any of those places?"

"It's not a good idea to stay in one place too long," Eric said between strokes on his blade. "You get too comfortable, you get cocky, and these days that's the easiest way to die. Keep moving, keep the military and other survivors wondering where you're going to end up next. It also gives us a better knowledge of the land; we can point people in the direction with the fewest Infected, towards the nearest town, and stuff like that."

"Oh," Jessa's voice again. "So, are we staying here very long?"

Eric sighed. Didn't these kids have somewhere to go, somewhere that wouldn't involve him having to look out for them and be responsible for their lives? It seemed like their parents were no longer in the picture, but they must have some relatives or family friends that could watch them.

"We were going to leave tonight. Meet up with a friend who lives a few hours from here." Emma said shortly, staring at the other piece of her cracker.

"Um…" Kodi started. "Isn't that, like… Super dangerous? To walk around at night?"

Eric leaned on his knee, waving the sharpening stone in Kodi's direction. "Danger knows no schedule, kid. But you can hide better at night time, sneak around and hopefully avoid any hot situations. Night isn't any more dangerous, but it's easier to slip by unseen."

Jessa looked over at Emma. "Is that how you've gotten all of your escort people through?"

Emma nodded. "Not the first time we've done this. We'll leave in a few hours, so if you two need to sleep, I suggest you get some shuteye while you can."

Like any pair of ten year olds, Kodi and Jessa were out within a few minutes. The two had curled up underneath the massive moving blanket and fallen asleep beneath one of the windows, a bright moon glaring through the window. All survivors of the post-outbreak world welcomed the luxury of lulls in the chaos and the chance to actually sleep soundly. Emma was packing the rest of their belongings into their backpacks as Eric walked over and began speaking in a hushed voice.

"Em', how long are we going to let them tag along with us?" He knelt down next to her, stuffing some rolled up rags and torn-off strips of old clothes into his pack.

"As long as they need to." Emma said without missing a beat, not taking her eyes off of her current task.

"You know they'll just slow us down." Eric said.

Emma stopped what she was doing and glanced over at the two. Jessa stirred slightly and Kodi was snoring very softly. Eric wasn't wrong; every time they'd escorted a group with children they'd barely gotten out alive. Kids had a tendency to be clumsy and hasty, which was lethal in this world. They were inexperienced fighters, physically weaker, and usually weren't very light footed. But couldn't Eric see how alone they were? She looked over at Kodi and Jessa for a moment as she pondered this. She doubted that Kodi would be helpless; after seeing his display with the assault rifle he seemed, at the very least, capable and brave. She hoped this didn't translate into impulsivity when he was actually under fire. But Jessa was different. Maybe it was innocence, maybe she was just naïve, or maybe her brother had sheltered her and turned her eyes away from the more visceral and horrific parts of the world they now lived in.

Emma looked at Eric. "Look, they're coming with us. You heard them; they don't have anywhere else to go. This is no different than when you and Elliot…"

"Stop," Eric closed his eyes. "Okay, fine. They can travel with us."

Emma nodded, appearing satisfied.

Eric stood. "Just know that I'm not a huge fan of this whole babysitting thing."

* * *

Eric vaulted into the window silently, off of the abandoned city street. The moonlight sprinkled everything with a thick, silky, silver glow. Crumbled buildings from the government's bombing in the first few years of the outbreak loomed over the four as they stalked along in the shadows of the old building. Eric could see the faint outline of the mountains in the far distance. He motioned to the others behind him.

"Stay down, I think I hear something up ahead."

Kodi gripped his assault rifle tighter.

As they quietly made their way into what appeared to be the courtyard of an old hotel, they heard the distinct and unmistakable sound; those agonized, echoing, primal clicks and hiccups. Eric held his hand up, signaling the others to stop moving.

"Great…" Emma said under her breath. She and the two kids sneaked up and crouched just behind Eric.

Remaining in the shadows, Eric swiftly and silently slipped his backpack off, unzipping it. He pulled out a broken piece of a car's side mirror from his backpack, the shard taped onto a broken arrow.

"The hell is that?" Kodi whispered to Emma, who put her finger over her lips.

Eric slowly extended the mirror into the doorway, tilting it to look around the courtyard. Stumbling and twitching near a smashed table, a Clicker ambled about as another one dozed motionless not far away. Eric, not looking away from the mirror, held up two fingers to let the others know how many Infected he'd spotted. He swiveled the mirror some more, searching the courtyard's reflection for a way to maneuver around them unnoticed. The air was very still and the night was unbelievably quiet. With very little wind and the noises of the Zone now miles away, every sound was amplified in the echoing presence of brick and concrete. It wasn't impossible, though. They'd have to move slowly, sacrificing expediency for…

 _BLAM._

Eric retracted his mirror and pressed his back against the wall. Emma instinctively grabbed Jessa, throwing her hand over the young girl's mouth an instant before she screamed, with only a small squeak escaping. Kodi's body rattled and he nearly dropped the rifle.

One of the Clickers roared, its hoarse cry reverberating off of the concrete.

"Oh shit! There's another one!" A male voice cried out, followed by four more gunshots. Eric could hear one of the shots ricocheting off of something metal, a second plowing into a concrete structure, and the final two finding their mark. The bullets impacted with soft thwacks and the throaty clicks and croaks faltered and went silent.

"Damn! You good?" A second voice sounded.

The first voice let out a chuckle. "Yeah, I only saw the one."

"Whew! Alright, I'll check the bodies for anything."

Emma drew her pistol as she released her hand from Jessa, whose eyes were still wide open though she remained silent. She gripped her ax steadily without shaking or trembling, but Emma could tell the girl's nerves were on edge.

"Ooh," One of the men called to his partner. "This one had a pack of smokes on them."

"Man, I ain't putting that shit in my mouth." The other scoffed.

"Are you kidding? They're not even opened, they're fresh."

The second man started to say something, and then just sighed. "Let's just go. Maybe they found those two blonde kids by now."

Eric felt his heart stop cold. No, no that couldn't be right. He had to have heard them wrong. He heard the first man kick the Clicker's body as he walked away.

"You don't want to check the rest of the hotel?"

The second man spoke. "Not after seeing two of those things just out in the open. I ain't taking any chances by going in there, especially at night. Now come on."

"Those kids better have something good on them for as long as they've been looking."

"They were part of that bigger group we took out a couple months ago. Remember how much loot they had on them? It'll be worth it. Dillon said he just saw them last week, and there's no way those little kids could've last this long without some sort of food stash and crap." The voices got softer as the two men departed.

The four were silent for a brief instant after the voices of the men had disappeared.

"Kodi…" Jessa began quietly.

Whatever she was about to say was abruptly cut short by a series of clicks behind them. Eric turned and looked around wildly. Something flashed inside of the hotel. He peered through the dirty glass, seeing moonlight piercing through the windows in shafts of dust. A Clicker, much closer than Eric had initially thought it sounded, stumbled through one of the light shafts for an instant, then disappeared into the darkness again as it ambled blindly in their direction.

"We got to run. Go!" With his mirror still in one hand, he took off moving quietly but swiftly. He could hear the others behind him. As the four of them clambered over halves of buildings and crumbled walls, he knew that the Clickers would soon be a non-issue. But just like so many times before, the Infected were the least of his worries.


	2. Traffic Jam

"We should be safe here. I don't think anyone's following us." Eric said as he closed the door of the old gas station.

"We're more than a dozen blocks away by now. Hopefully nobody noticed us." Emma said.

Jessa looked around the dim interior of the gas station. Shelves were tipped over and various trash articles were strewn about. A blunt object of some sort had smashed holes in the walls, and coolers along the back wall bore shattered glass faces and deep scratches in the frames. Several spent shell casings littered the ground in certain spots, and bullet holes were scattered across each wall. A substantial struggle had apparently broken out here, but Jessa couldn't tell if it had been a battle for food during the initial outbreak, or if it had been a more recent event.

"Why don't you just take us to the Q.Z.?" Kodi said tiredly.

Emma eyed him. "Trust me; you don't want to go there."

"Maybe we do."

"…No, you don't."

Jessa stared at the ground for a moment. "Do you think those guys were looking for us?"

Eric sat on the dirty floor and looked at Jessa with a stern, curious expression. "What larger group were you guys with?"

"Our parents." Jessa said quietly.

"Do you think…?"

"They had to be the same guys who ambushed us," Kodi spoke up and shrugged mournfully. "Blonde kids, big group, and lots of 'loot.' That was us."

"Who was 'us'?" Emma asked gently.

Jessa sat down next to Kodi, looking at the ground.

"We were trying to get into the Zone," Kodi started, looking at Emma. "The others said they'd never been to one, but that it was the only place left that would be safe. We'd been attacked so many times and…"

"Whoa, whoa. Hold on," Eric held up his hand. "Where were you before all of this?"

Kodi sighed, knowing he'd have to begin his story much further back. "We weren't born anywhere near the city. We grew up somewhere like deep in the mountains. North, I think. It was this tiny little group of people who were all willing to help each other. Dad said the town used to be a mining camp. We had little houses and everything. But one day we got attacked, and these raiders like surrounded us and were shooting everything and trying to get to our food. I thought it was a one-time thing, but apparently it wasn't. We fought them off what seems like hundreds of times. Mom would always hide us whenever the raids happened; she put us in this dark cellar and put something heavy over the door. I think we lasted a pretty long time. Then finally one day dad told us to pack up, that we were going to leave and go to Denver. I didn't even know what a Denver was until he told me. He said we were going to go find a new home, that when we got there we would be safe."

Jessa sniffled quietly.

"Dad gave me this," Kodi tugged on the assault rifle's strap, the big gun slung over his back. "He said that this was going to be a man's journey and that I needed a man's gun. I still don't know how he got it. He showed me how to load it, shoot it, and clean it; I felt like a soldier but he got mad at me when I told him that. I don't think he liked soldiers. It took us a long time to get to Denver, but when I saw the walls of the Zone I thought we were home free. It looked like the castles I'd seen in some of the old history books we found that Jessa would read. We got really close to it, and that's when we got ambushed. These guys came out from everywhere, it's like they were waiting for us. Dad told us to hide. I wanted to fight with him but he told me to… He told me to protect Jessa and hide. Before we got attacked the adults had said there was a stop light or something a few blocks up ahead that we would take a break at before we got to the zone. Dad told us to go hide in the alleys and that they would meet us at the stop light. I didn't even think, I just ran. I grabbed Jessa and we just ran. We hid in this house near the stop light and waited for them."

Emma leaned forward gently as Kodi faltered. "But…"

"No one came," Jessa spoke softly, Kodi glancing at her with a vaguely guilty expression on his face. "Ever. We waited in that house for a week. Then we hid in a different house for a week, and then a different house. We'd find little scraps of food and we made our canteens last as long as we could. Some of the guys who attacked us had gotten wounded and ran into a house. They apparently died in there. We took the water they had. Kodi told me that they wouldn't need it anymore, which was true. So we took it. Honestly we thought you guys were the ones who attacked us."

"Why didn't you just shoot us then?" Eric asked.

"I almost did," Kodi said, paused, and then continued slowly. "But I didn't want Jessa to have to see that. Not up close."

Eric watched Kodi hang his head, unsure of what to say, what even could be said. He briefly thought of Elliot.

Emma spoke, recalling the words they'd overhead the men speak. "You'd been hiding for two months?"

"Something like that. We kept hoping that someone from our group would come looking for us, but every time we'd see someone it was one of those attackers. And they're still looking for us… Everyone in our group brought a lot of their personal things because we were moving our entire lives to the Quarantine Zone. The few people that stayed behind in our town, well I don't know if they're even still there or not. They said they didn't think going to the Q.Z. was a good idea, but I doubt they could have fought off the bandits again. There were so many of them and only a few of our guys left. So everyone that was with us had a lot of stuff. Like, mom and dad had a lot of supplies on them, so they probably think we do, too. I'd like to think they survived…" Kodi trailed off.

Jessa shook her head and whispered in a defeated voice. "They're gone."

The four were silent for a spell.

"Those guys aren't going to find you." Emma said suddenly.

Kodi and Jessa looked up.

"I promise," Emma looked both of them in the eye. "You're with us now. We're going to watch out for each other. No one's going to get to you."

Jessa brushed a tear away from her cheek, a small smile creeping up the corner of her mouth as she watched the honest reflections in Emma's deep emerald eyes dance reassuringly. The young woman's eyes held a kind and powerful expression, determined and brave. It reminded Jessa of her mother as she looked into Emma's bright green eyes.

"You're safe."

* * *

Jessa tucked a thick tuft of blonde behind her ear and clambered over the vehicular barricade of abandoned cars on the freeway, the midday sun shining down on her golden hair. Last night had been an emotional one. She hadn't known Eric and Emma for more than a day, but she could already tell that they were more trusting and protective than anyone else she'd encountered. Eric had said it would be safer and quicker to travel by skirting the edges of the freeways. They were going to some place called Boulder. Jessa thought a boulder was just a big rock. Maybe the town had a big rock in the middle of it.

"Come on, pick it up." Eric called behind him from several yards ahead.

It wasn't as if he was rude or anything, Eric was still a devoted and trusting person. Jessa was glad he was with them, and she felt safe and protected under his analytical and watchful eye. But compared with how warm Emma had become to her and her brother, Eric seemed a little more cautious. Jessa fleetingly wondered what traumatic events had happened in his life that made him so much more blunt and bitter compared to how Emma seemed. The world was in no shortage of heartbreak and tragedy, and she knew that in this world no one was exempt. Jessa slipped past a narrow space between two cars and readjusted the pistol in the side pocket of her backpack.

"How come there are so many cars on this side of the road and, like, none on the other side?" Jessa called.

Eric looked at her over his shoulder. "People were trying to get out of the city, not get into it. Keep your voice down, kid. Em' and I haven't been this way for a while so we don't know what all has changed. Stay alert."

Emma reached her hand out, helping Jessa down off of a large SUV. "When the outbreak first happened everyone was trying to get away from the cities. Some people abandoned their cars on the road, just got out and walked because the traffic was so thick. You were vulnerable as hell just sitting in your car, so some people walked."

"Oh, okay," Jessa said. Her brother jogged ahead to catch up with Eric, leaving Jessa and Emma trailing by a few yards. Jessa looked at the sea of automobiles ahead of them. "I take it lots of people had cars?"

Emma chuckled. "Yeah, it was a pretty common thing."

"Did you have one?"

"No," Emma said. "I was only seven when the Cordyceps broke out. But my granddaddy had this old yellow Jeep that I always wanted to drive."

"I think I've seen one of those. It's a little car, right? And it looks like it has big round headlights that look like eyes on the front?" Jessa held her hands up in front of her, making circle shapes with her fingers.

Emma nodded, a faint smile crossing her lips. Jessa was a curious individual; she kind of reminded Emma of herself when she was younger, back when she had no idea how long and far reaching the infection would spread. How different the world had become, how unforgiving and cold life had gotten. It was amazing to Emma that children and girls like Jessa could even maintain any semblance of innocence or childhood cheerfulness in this nightmare they lived in. Perhaps, Emma mused, it was different for them. Maybe because this is the only life they know, they can't truly comprehend how vastly different life was back then.

Kodi's ears perked up, hearing a faint sound that stood out above the quiet freeway. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah," Eric said slowly. He turned his head and raised his hand to the girls behind them. "Hold up."

Very faintly, Eric heard the sounds of a random conversation. It seemed like it was coming from below them, underneath the overpass.

"Shh shh shh. Keep your heads down." Eric crouched down and crawled over to the edge of the freeway and peered over the side barrier. Sure enough, a group of about a dozen people were walking along the highway below. Many of the survivors had two long guns draped on their backpacks, and some had improvised weapons crafted out of simple tools. Random mismatched bits of body armor, obviously salvaged from downed soldiers, cloaked multiple people in the dark matte grays and blacks. Even from the distance they were at Eric could see deep red stains splattered on their clothes, mixed in with dirt and grime.

"Maybe they're part of your group." Emma whispered to Jessa, who shook her head.

"No one had that many weapons with them, and we were the only kids in our group." Jessa said quietly, watching three children their age walking in the middle of the group.

"It's a damned Faction." Eric muttered to Emma.

"What's a Faction?" Kodi whispered.

Eric turned his head towards Kodi but his eyes remained fixed on the people below. "They're a group of survivors. They may seem like they have noble intentions, but let me tell you something; they're some of the most brutal and bloodthirsty people you can meet. They're like Hunters, but Factions don't have one permanent place they call home. They're mobile, clever, resourceful, unpredictable, and will pretty much kill anything that moves if it means they can get supplies."

"Jeez…" Kodi stared.

"It looks like they're moving on through. I don't think they noticed us. We'll have to continue carefully, though. There might be more of them." Eric said, watching the small crowd round a corner and head in the opposite direction the four of them were going.

Over the next few hours, Jessa followed the other three and continued to look at all of the sights below the elevated freeway they were traveling on. She saw dilapidated restaurants, abandoned stores, and more gas stations. She saw parking lots that had long since had vegetation plow through the asphalt. Signs towered over their establishments, the lettering having fallen off in no particular pattern. She could see scorch marks on buildings where large fires had evidently broken out. One gas station bore a massive crater in the center of its parking lot, with concrete rubble and mangled steel lying in a heap. Large pieces of metal had impaled the wall as shrapnel and stuck out at random angles. She saw an old grocery store with every front window smashed and a vehicle that had been rammed into the front doors. Blackened from flames, a few cars in the parking lot of the grocery store had apparently been set on fire for unknown reasons, and she could see ripped tarps and shredded coverings on one that had been used as a temporary shelter.

"Eric," Emma called out. "Look."

The four of them had come to a fork in the freeway, where an exit branched off into the city of Boulder. But on the same road they were currently on, a few hundred yards ahead sat an abandoned military Humvee. The four survivors leaned up against a car as Emma pulled out her binoculars.

"Are those binoculars?" Kodi asked.

Emma nodded.

"Cool."

As she peeked through the viewfinders, she zeroed in on the Humvee and brought the binoculars into focus. There was a large dent in the left rear door, and the top hatch was open. One of the tires was completely flat and there were several bullet holes in the rear of the vehicle. Its dark green paint looked tired and weathered. Atop the dashboard, Emma could see two boxes of ammunition, and through the windows she could see a shotgun propped up on the passenger seat. There was a massive chunk of the driver's seat missing where it looked like a high-powered bullet had torn through and taken most of the seat material with it. Emma scanned the fraction of the vehicle's interior she could see through the windows. What was bothering her was the absence of bodies. If this Humvee had been abandoned here or the occupants had been ambushed and murdered, where were they?

"Two boxes of shells and a shotgun," She said, still peering through the binoculars. "I don't know. Things that look too good to be true usually are. What do you want to do, Eric? Our exit's right here."

Just as Eric was about to respond, a bright glint caught his eye not far from the Humvee. He whispered loudly. "Get down!"

"What?" Emma hissed as she crouched down.

"Rifle scope. Sunlight caught it, I saw the reflection." Eric dug into his backpack and retrieved his mirror. Holding it out beyond the shelter of the vehicle, he saw a man vault over a car and dash for cover behind a car closer to them. In his hands he held a scoped high-caliber rifle. Eric tilted and swiveled the mirror to scan the roadway, not confident that this sniper was alone. Underneath a red van, sure enough, he caught sight of two more sets of legs.

"Three and we almost walked right into them," Eric said, setting his mirror on the ground and unclipping the strap on his shotgun from his backpack. "Alright, stick together no matter what. You two stay right behind us. I'm going to…"

 _BLAM!_

"Shit!" Jessa flinched, banging her shoulder against the door of the car.

 _There's always someone ready to shoot before us, isn't there?_ Eric thought. It was a gunshot, no doubt. But for some reason Eric didn't hear it impact anything close to them, nor did he hear it whiz by above them. A split second afterwards, he heard something heavy and soft slump over.

Emma furrowed her brow and looked at him. "What was that?"

Eric picked up his mirror again and scanned the roadway again. Behind the car that the sniper had run towards, a body lay with a scoped rifle lying on the ground beside it. Eric's brow furrowed, and he wondered if the two people he had seen behind the van were actually separate from the dead rifleman.

"What the… Yo, Gareth got shot!" A voice rang out from behind the van.

 _BLAM!_

Someone screamed and Eric twisted his mirror just in time to see another body fall behind the van.

 _BLAM!_ A third shot rang out, and a third body fell.

Emma drew her pistol and looked around wildly. What was going on?

Suddenly, it was quiet. A bird called randomly in the distance. Eric dropped his mirror and picked up his shotgun again, instantly on red-alert and ready for another shot to be aimed right at him. He pushed the pin to click off the safety and saw Kodi shoulder his assault rifle.

A loud voice shouted above the silence.

"Eric! Emma! You guys okay?"


	3. A Friendly Face

The burly middle-aged man landed a heavy but friendly hand on Eric's shoulder. He spoke with a deep, thick Irish accent. "I see you survived our keen-eyed sniper."

Eric scoffed. "Didn't know he was yours."

Micah, the man who had so deftly eliminated the three Skimmers on the bridge, nodded to Eric and set his rifle down. "I recognized you two from the last time you were here. Or rather, I recognized Emma's hair."

"Hardy-har har." Emma said dryly.

The big man with the even bigger beard closed the door to the old car dealership and turned his head to the sniper while motioning a massive hand to Kodi and Jessa. "Micah, be a dear boy and go get these kids some water."

As Micah exited, Kodi's eyes scanned the interior of the building. It bore evidence of once being a smooth, sleek, clean facility. There were gashes and large pits in the tile floor but he could tell that it had, at one point, been remarkably shiny. The enormous windows, spanning almost the entirety of one wall, had been boarded up with large sheets of particle board, and every bit of glass had been covered up with the exception of a few skylights whose glass had oddly survived without a few cracks branching out from the edges. What appeared to have been the offices now housed weapon racks, old barrels now used for laundry, and fire pits with grates over them likely for cooking. A new sport utility vehicle that was now old sat in the center of the large main room, still patiently awaiting its buyer. All of the doors and seats were missing, and a few metal platters with crumbs and scraps were scattered across the SUV's rear cargo area. A large sign had been emblazoned on the front of the building reading _Infected inside! Keep away!_ It appeared to be simply a clever deterrent, as the inside revealed not a single spore to be found. A bow was propped up against a door frame, a shotgun in another doorway, and Kodi noticed the large revolver on the hip of the muscular bearded man with his belt holding dozens of bullets.

"Don't worry, kiddo. This here's nothing to be used on the likes of you," The man patted the revolver. "'Course I imagine you don't worry _too_ much about men with handguns, seeing that fine specimen you got there yourself."

Kodi adjusted the rifle strap and nodded.

"Name's Troy. Welcome to our home." The man extended his hand and shook Kodi's with an iron grip. Despite his beefy exterior, there was something kind and inviting in the man's expression. Deep beneath a sturdy brow were two twinkling eyes, and a smile broke through the forest of beard. Kodi was initially thrown off by the man's deep and hearty chuckling; laughter was rare in the world they lived in, especially from adults.

Eric spoke as he wandered around the room, addressing the man named Troy. "Did you know about the Humvee up there on the freeway?"

"Yeah, that's ours. Almost fell for it, did ye?" Troy chuckled.

Micah returned with two old tin cans filled with clear glimmering water, handing them to the two children.

"You planted that Humvee up there?" Emma asked.

Troy nodded. "That exit leads right to our home as you noticed. We put the Humvee there so them damned Skimmers would be less tempted to come down our way. The shotgun in there is broken and the ammo boxes are empty. We also dragged a few more carcass cars there to block the exit so it'd be a lot more work to come this way."

"That's smart." Kodi said, impressed as his gaze continued to wander around the room.

Emma glanced at the two kids, and then turned to Troy. "Would you mind if Eric and I talked to you alone?"

Troy nodded and gestured to the kids. "The two of ye can stay here. Feel free to look around, and if you need anything ask someone where Lacey is. Just don't touch any of the weapons. She gets a trifle crabby about those."

Troy walked Eric and Emma into what used to be the shop. The treated concrete floor had aged well, but the hydraulic lifts and other equipment was rusted, tarnished, and various other forms of rotting into the ground. Each bay had a large van or SUV in it, and judging from one example with its doors open Troy's small group of survivors had fashioned them into reasonably comfortable sleeping quarters. Troy opened the door to a massive old delivery van and stepped inside.

"You know, I almost marked the two of you out for dead. Thought you was coming last night," Troy said, clambering around the van's interior before sitting down on a stack of wheels welded together. "Run into trouble?"

"Sort of, it's complicated." Eric started but Troy held up his hand.

"If it has anything to do with how ye came across these two young'uns, don't bother. If it ain't my business, don't make it mine." He said gently.

 _Good._ Eric nodded. Troy had always been one of the more compassionate survivors. Eric did, however, feel as though Troy deserved to know why two strange new kids were in his carefully protected home.

Emma stepped into the van and sat down, leaning her back against the side of it, but Eric stayed just outside the door and leaned on it before speaking. "I'll just get right to it, Troy. We need to find a place those kids will be safe. I got a notion that some Hunters or a Faction is looking for them; they were part of a group that got ambushed and the others had so much on them that now there are people hunting the two of them for their supplies."

Troy stroked his beard, thinking. "So that's why ye brought them here?"

"I don't think they should stay here, honestly," Eric said. "It's too close to where they were. I don't want to draw any unnecessary hellfire your way either."

"What about that place up in Wyoming the two of ye almost made a home out of?"

Emma exchanged looks with Eric. "That's quite a ways away, Troy."

"Oi, one place is too close, another is too far," Troy threw his hands up gently, and then leaned forward on his knee. "Have ye even asked their opinion on it?"

"They wanted to go into the Q.Z." Emma said shortly.

"Well ye can't drop them off in that hell pit. Let's see…" Troy said, appearing to be thinking.

"Come on, man," Eric pressed. "You knew a lot of people that came through here a couple years ago, in both directions. No one ever talked about any towns or settlements anywhere where they would be safe?"

Troy's expression flashed slightly, as if he was about to say something. "Well… There is one place deeper in the mountains."

"I'm listening."

"Now before ye go getting excited, know that I'm not even sure the settlement exists. Like you said, it's been a few years since I've talked with a whole lot of travelers."

Emma sat up straight. "Troy. Where?"

Troy looked at the two of them. "From what I heard, there's an old resort on Whitefish Lake. People said there were some survivors living there. It's supposed to be just a day's walk from here."

Emma glanced up at Eric. "Is that the resort near Silver Lake?"

"Sounds familiar," Eric looked at the big man again. "I think I know where that is, Troy."

"But have ye ever been to the settlement there?"

"No, but I know how to get there. I've been near the area a while back and…"

"Eric, they were just rumors, there's no guarantee that anyone's even there anymore, much less how friendly they'll be to the likes of two people wandering up with a couple of kids."

"There's no other solution here, Troy. We have to get them away from Denver."

"I just…" Troy stroked his beard again somewhat nervously. "I just want ye to know what you're getting into, and what you're getting those two kids into. This world's hell enough already."

Emma waited. As much as she wanted to return to that community she and Eric had stopped at in Wyoming a few years ago, it was much too far and the journey there wouldn't be easy, especially with winter right around the corner. Normally she'd speak up, but this time she was trusting Eric to make the right decision.

"Do you have any supplies you can spare?"

Seeing that Eric had made up his mind, Troy hung his head momentarily, and then nodded. "Only because it's in the best interest of the young'uns in there, you're welcome to look through our stash and take whatever you need. We'd be happy to get you set up with anything you need aside from food. But you won't find it here."

* * *

"You actually got this dirt bag running?" Emma looked up and down at the pickup sitting in the small two-car garage.

"She don't mean that, Betsy." Troy said, gingerly rubbing the fender of the pickup. In the few places where the dim blue paint wasn't flaking off, rust was eating through the sheetmetal faster than ants through a sugar cube. The hood had a large dent in the top of it, and a snowplow mount on the bumper served as a perch for two shattered old work lights. The big round headlights glared even in the dimly lit garage. The individual _Dodge_ letters on the hood just above the grille were tarnished, and the grille itself had a large chunk out of it, creating a gaping maw on the left side of it. The metal antenna was absent, snapped off close to its base.

Kodi stared at the truck. "This thing's ancient."

"I'd like to think fifty-seven years ain't that many, lad." Troy said.

Kodi looked up at the ceiling briefly. "This was built in 1876?"

"1976," Jessa whispered.

"That's what I meant."

Eric looked through the supply boxes on the other side of the garage. "Troy was built in 1876."

"Oi."

Emma looked through the boxes, finding bottles of alcohol, towels, rags, rope, and tape. She lifted an almost complete roll of duct tape out of the box, hugging it. "Hello friend."

"What do you use the truck for? Wouldn't that attract, like, a crap ton of zombies?" Jessa said, hopping up onto a crate. Emma smirked at her usage of the phrase 'crap ton.'

"That's what we use it for, actually. We'll fire it up and draw them away from the home, lure them with the noise of the engine into an area where we can trap them, close them off, or something. There's a warehouse on the other side of town that has a true 'infected inside' sign on the front of it." Troy unstacked a large wooden crate and set it on the floor, opening it.

"Oh, okay," Jessa said.

"We also use it to patrol, look for supplies, and gain an advantage against the Skimmers. We actually drove a small group of Hunters out of here who thought they were going to call this their home." Troy said as he handed Eric a box of shotgun shells.

Kodi had opened the passenger door and was sitting on the bench seat, looking at the gauges and shifter. "How come you didn't fix up one of the newer cars?"

Troy scoffed. "Damned wiring systems in those things. It's much easier to fix up one of these old girls; simple construction. Back before the outbreak, these new cars were overly sensitive. You couldn't even pull off the exhaust and intake without freaking the hell out of the air delivery systems and the math in the computer. Those self-learned algorithms would see the change and just flip shit. And those cars have just been sitting out in the open. The injectors are probably fouled, the plug wires have been eaten through, the modern engines are dialed in so tightly on tolerances that the pistons are seized in the bores, the water pump is jammed with rubbish, the radiator is packed with dirt, the brake rotors and calipers are seized up, the ethanol gas has destroyed the synthetic fuel line and corroded the steel line and all of the rubber bushings and mounts have vaporized."

"That was going to be my second guess." Kodi said.

"End rant." Emma muttered.

Jessa walked over to the bed of the pickup and looked inside. Rust had eaten holes completely through the bed in several places, and Jessa could see through to the floor. The parts of the bed that were still intact had long ago lost their paint, and dirt was caked onto it. Various metal pipes, wooden beams, and all sorts of machetes and knives were scattered on the bed floor. Dried blood coated the edges of most of the weaponry, and small pieces of torn fabric were visible in a few of the wood planks, caught between the splinters from some sort of violent impact.

"Hey, c'mere. Don't look at those," Troy said gently and snapped his fingers. Jessa walked over to him. "I'm noticing that he's got most of the firepower over there with that military rifle. You ever shot a bow before?"

Jessa's eyes lit up slightly and she nodded as Troy opened a case revealing a smooth recurve bow. The deep cherry colored wood appeared initially rotten and tired, but as Troy lifted it out of the case and handed it to her, the light struck the wood plies and it suddenly began to shine with life and energy. The well-preserved laminations felt smooth as she ran her hand along the elegant curves, and her small palm rested perfectly into the leather-bound hand grip.

"You keep that one," Troy said, handing her a half dozen arrows. "It's a child-size bow we found in an attic here, and it's too small for anyone in our group."

Jessa took the arrows and smiled. "Thank you."

"What's your status on lashing and cordage?" Eric, who had dove into a deep crate, asked and held up a small coil of rope.

"Take the smaller coils if you want, but anything bigger than that we'll probably need."

Eric flashed thumbs up and turned back to his partner. "Em' have you found any batteries?"

A volley of gunshots suddenly came from outside. Everyone in the garage instantly froze, and Emma instinctively drew her pistol. A man spattered with blood came bursting through the door of the garage, slamming it closed behind her. Emma took aim, but lowered her weapon but Troy dashed over and tried to calm the young man down.

"Derek! What's going on out there?" Troy asked quickly.

"T-the sniper roost got overrun; the one over the old burger joint. It's those fucking Skimmers again, man. We couldn't fight all of them. W-we had to retreat but I-I didn't want to go back home and draw them there. I thought we could outrun them and get to the truck b-but… Oh, shit. And Isaac's hurt real bad, man. There were so many of them and it was just the two of us." The young man was in near hysterics.

"Just calm down for a second, Derek," Troy ran over to a crate, retrieving a box of bullets. "Get your breath back, load up, and get ready."

Derek nodded shakily.

Troy turned to Eric and Emma as he drew his revolver. "Grab whatever else you need quick, and get ready to lock and load."

Eric looked at Kodi and Jessa. "You two stay here."

"Eric, we can help!" Kodi started to protest.

"No, I'm not going to risk it. We don't know how many there are," Eric said firmly. "If anyone comes in here you do whatever you need to but do _not_ go outside until I come get you, do you understand?"

Kodi looked like he was ready to say something else, but he just exhaled. "Fine."

Jessa notched an arrow in the bow and crouched behind the truck. Kodi followed, dragging his feet as he flipped his rifle's safety off.

"Ready?" Troy put his hand on the doorknob. Eric and Emma nodded and the door opened, sunlight streaming in. The three rushed outside, with Troy charging for the street. As he exited the cover of the houses and fences, running out onto the sidewalk, a man wearing a dark colored hoodie sprinted at him, a rusty metal pipe in his hands.

"There's more over here!" He yelled and swung downwards.

Troy, several times larger than the man in the hoodie, simply caught the pipe in midair with one hand. The man struggled to break the pipe free, fear creeping into his once empowered expression. Troy flipped his revolver around and grabbed it by the barrel, swinging sideways and connecting the base of the curvaceous, wood-trimmed grip with the man's hooded head.

"Agh!" The man's grip on the pipe broke as he fell. His vision fading fast, he shouted at his cronies in a slurred, desperate shriek. "Kill the big guy!"

Troy heaved his massive boot downward, silencing the man's battle cry, but he wasn't quick enough. More than half a dozen more Skimmers were seen running towards his location two blocks down. Troy flipped his revolver back and fired twice, missed once, and connected with a soft thigh on his second shot before ducking for cover behind an abandoned sedan. Derek rushed out of the garage, slamming the door closed, and crouched down next to Troy.

Eric, shotgun clutched in his hands, vaulted through an open window into a house. Crouching by the large front window, he listened as the footsteps of the Skimmers trampling on the thick grass grew louder amidst the gunshots and shouts. He waited, waited, not yet, not yet…

"Hey! There's... GAH!" Eric whipped his shotgun up to his shoulder and rose up from his crouch, taking aim and pulling the trigger. The Skimmer raised his baseball bat in a panic, but it did nothing to stop the buckshot from tearing into his torso. Eric pumped the slide quickly advancing another round and taking aim at the second man, who fired his pistol, the bullet impacting the wooden window frame inches from Eric's abdomen. Eric fired another blast, and the pistol dropped to the ground as the man fell.

"Emma!" Eric called, wondering where his partner had gone, but then heard a gunshot from the floor above him. A Skimmer halfway down the block fell to the ground. Another gunshot and Eric saw another man jerk sideways and clutch his chest, blood quickly coating his hand. He stumbled to his knees and writhed soundlessly before finally yelling something incomprehensible and falling to the ground.

"There's my girl." Eric murmured. He slid two shells into the internal tube magazine as he stood and swiftly exited the house, knowing he had given away his position. Emma Helmsman was an incredible shot with her pistol. She was calm, expressionless, and absolutely pin-point lethal. She never had elaborated on how or when she had so finely honed her skill, but her mastery over her Sig Sauer was deadly. As Eric jumped through another window out of the house, he heard another gunshot and saw someone a block and a half away flinch and grab at his throat, dropping the machete in his hand before collapsing in the middle of the street.

Eric paused to listen, and just at that moment he heard thundering footsteps and the swish of clothes behind him. He whirled and barely ducked backwards as a Skimmer swiped sideways with a large hunting knife. The man was close enough to Eric that he couldn't aim his shotgun, and he raised it sideways, blocking the jabs of the blade. The man lunged forward, the knife aimed at Eric's head. Eric sidestepped and guided the knife away from his face with the barrel of the shotgun, then quickly jerked it upwards. The wooden stock slammed into his attacker's jaw. As the assailant stumbled backwards, Eric jabbed downwards with the stock like a spear, connecting with his opponent's throat. The man gagged and choked, throwing his knife feebly in a last desperate attempt to kill Eric. He slumped onto the ground and fell lifeless as Eric stepped back, the knife landing several feet short of him.

Eric turned around back to the street to see one last Skimmer looking around wildly. There was a gunshot from the roof and the man's head snapped backwards violently in a burst of red. Seconds later, he heard rapid footsteps inside the house, and a moment later Emma jumped through the window. She widened her eyes and raised her pistol for a second before realizing who was standing before her.

"I think that's all of them for now," She said. "C'mon, let's get the kids."

Eric and Emma spilled out onto the street, where he saw several other fallen Skimmers. There must have been many more than he had seen at first. Troy was quickly pushing bullets into his revolver and looked up.

"I suggest the four of ye get out of this town while it's quiet," He said gravely. "I don't think that's the last of them."

"We're all clear out here." Eric called as he opened the door of the garage. Kodi and Jessa stood up from their hiding place behind the truck. Jessa put her bow around her, the string against her front and the bow against her backpack. She dashed out from behind the pickup and ran out the door.

"Thanks." She said quickly as she ran past Eric, who motioned to Kodi.

"C'mon. We're leaving now."

Kodi continued holding his weapon as he walked out the door. "Are we good?"

"Not until we get out of the city. Let's go." Eric said.

Outside, Troy was pulling magazines out of the Skimmers' firearms. He looked up as Eric and Kodi approached him. "Here, this might come in handy."

"Thanks." Eric said taking the compass that Troy handed him.

"Keep the two of them alive for me, would ye?" Troy said to the children. "This one still owes me beer and steak."

"I'll make reservations for you and Lacey next time we come through." Emma said.

Troy pulled out his revolver and gave Derek a pat on the shoulder before looking back at the four. "Now get going."

"C'mon, kiddos." Eric motioned with his hand and the four hurried to the alley.


	4. The Ascent

"So there are Hunters, Bandits, Skimmers, and Factions. And these are all the different kinds of people that would want to kill us?" Jessa counted on her fingers.

"And Infected." Kodi added.

"I don't really consider them… People."

Emma poked at the small fire with a twig, mindlessly pushing around the larger ones. Winter was definitely upon them. Just like it always did, the snow seemed to wait until they'd left the city to strike. Just as they passed the last bits of civilization at the foot of the mountains, big flakes began to fall. The further they went, the worse the weather got. Emma could barely see the sun through the overcast sky and reasoned it was around noontime, so the four of them stopped at an abandoned rest area to eat, warm up, and catch their breath. Eric had gotten a little fire going and it was a welcome and morale-boosting miniature inferno. A utility closet revealed a broken radio, a random stash of ration cards from the Denver Q.Z. and a single mason jar of raw honey with a label running across the side reading 'Not for sale outside Quarantine Zone CO-80204.'

"So, what's the difference between Skimmers and Hunters?" Jessa asked Eric.

Eric shrugged at her. "What does it matter? They're both assholes."

"Were you, like, a Hunter before?" Kodi asked.

"No," Eric said sharply, but then softened slightly and looked down into the fire. "No, I wasn't."

Kodi glanced at Emma, confused, who shook her head at him dissuading the young boy from pressing Eric any further.

"Hunters have a place they call home, Skimmers don't; they just wander around outside of the Zones." Emma said.

"I still don't get why the Q.Z.s are such a bad place." Jessa wondered aloud.

"They just are." Ice refroze over Emma's face and she stared back into the fire.

"But why?"

"Jessa…"

"Look, the whole reason we left our home was so that we could go to the Denver Zone. Can you at least tell us why that's not where we're going?" Jessa looked at Emma with deep, honest blue eyes.

Emma sighed, throwing her small twig into the fire. "The Fireflies, that's why."

There was a pause. Kodi spoke up. "Wait, dad told us about Fireflies. I thought they were supposed to be good guys."

"There aren't good guys or bad guys. They're like Factions; they have some good intentions but they have a shitty way of doing what they do. Like, I can respect that Factions have women and children to feed, but they just brutalize the hell out of anyone and everyone they meet. Everyone's out for themselves only; only _my_ Faction is important, and all that. It's the same story with the Fireflies." Emma said.

"So," Jessa hesitated a little. Fireflies and Quarantine Zones seemed like a hot button for Emma, but Jessa had to know and she knew that Kodi was in as much suspense as she was. "Do the Fireflies have kids in their groups, too?"

Emma shrugged. "Not likely, but they might."

Eric spoke again. "Em'…"

"No, if they want to know then they might as well know." Emma said, looking directly at him.

Eric fell silent.

"They were just a simple activist group at the start," Emma continued. "I remember hearing my mom talk about them like they would just be a fad, that people would lose their interest and see the pointlessness in what they were doing. That was a long time ago. They wanted to reinstate all of the government branches; they viewed the military as being oppressive to everyone in the Zones. Don't get me wrong, they were one-hundred-percent right in that regard. The military used to be an honorable, sacrificial, and protective bunch. When I was a kid we saw them as superheroes, people who fought the fights that we couldn't. But that was a long time ago, too. The military that you'd see in the Zones… They were unreasonably brutal, could do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, and no one could say anything against them. It sucked living like that. I wanted out, I wanted out so badly. I was suffocating in that damned Zone, but then the Fireflies just made it worse."

Jessa spoke slowly and gently, feeling the anger stirring in the young woman. "…Did you grow up in the Zone?"

"Oh, I _grew up_ in the Zone, but I wasn't _raised_ in the Zone," Emma lifted her head defiantly, her emerald eyes flashing in the fire and the hue of the flames making her hair glower with a bright, almost alive bright orange. "It was in Helena; way up in Montana. Before the outbreak, my parents were one of the wealthiest people in their area. I was the spoiled only child of them. Everyone listened to me, and everywhere we went everyone knew the little red-haired Helmsman girl. I'd get into trouble a lot, but I wasn't ever really punished that hard. I think my parents were over protective of me. But, obviously, it happened. The night the outbreak hit our region my parents hid me in this panic room behind a bookshelf. I didn't even know we had a panic room. They came back hours later and told me not to worry, but how could I not? They were really edgy. Apparently the Cordyceps hadn't actually gotten to our town yet, and a couple days later this cop came to our house and told us that we had to go. They didn't even let me grab anything on the way out, dad just carried me out to a police car and we left for Helena's Q.Z. And that's where we stayed for the next seven years. It drove me fucking insane. Soldiers always coming to our door and checking me to see if I was Infected, everyone always angry or crying or shouting, never having that feeling of safety; they called it a safe-zone but it felt like everyone was always afraid of something.

"The Fireflies appeared and when I first heard about them I considered joining them. I thought it'd be 'cool' whatever the hell that means. Mom and dad got angry at me; said that I needed to keep quiet and just do what everyone else did. Whatever. On my fourteenth birthday I snuck out of our apartment and met up with one of my friends at their place. We talked, hung out, and threw knives at a wall until my parents knocked on the door. They were furious. When we got back home they yelled at me and I yelled back. I couldn't keep living like they were, doing whatever anyone told them to do. Dad told me that a life of submission to the soldiers was the best way to stay alive. I told him it was the worst way to live. I started crying, they held me, and I begged, I pleaded for us to leave the Zone. Dad said that there was nowhere else for them to go. He didn't talk to me after that… Not ever again.

"I ran into a closet and locked myself in there. I heard mom tell him to let me calm down. Then the door broke open, there was some yelling, this stranger who broke in said he was a Firefly. He said he needed a place to hide, and before my parents could do anything I heard radio chatter outside in the hall and I knew it was soldiers. They broke in, and started shooting. I heard all of it. They killed the Firefly, and then I heard my mom scream, and for some reason they asked my dad if they had any children." Emma paused.

Eric looked at her and she raised her head. Something in his eyes comforted her and she brushed some hair out of her eyes and sighed.

"Dad told them no; he said he didn't have any kids. The soldiers said, 'good,' and then I heard them shoot him. I had to listen to the whole thing. Afterwards one of those pieces of shit said my parents were 'in the way.' Like… You son of a bitch. But I couldn't do anything, they didn't think anyone else was in the apartment and if I even made a sound they'd probably come and kill me, too. The soldiers are awful but The Fireflies made it worse, they just made it worse. Those Fireflies poked a hornets' nest and got everyone around them stung, whether they were involved or not."

The twins fell silent, Kodi looking into the fire and Jessa maintaining her gaze at Emma. Jessa spoke. "I'm sorry, Emma."

Emma looked up, the fire returning to her eyes and the stubborn confidence returning to her posture. "I promised myself that night that I'd get out of that Zone, even if I hadn't a clue where I was going. Once the soldiers were gone I tried sneaking away to my friend's place again but they were gone. I still don't know where they went. So then I thought I'd just try to escape by myself. I didn't get very far, obviously. I actually did get outside of the walls but I was trapped between these two lookout towers. I had no idea where to go when this lady found me and helped me get past them unseen. She brought me to this group that lived outside the Zone and they took me in. Just like that, no questions. They just asked if I needed a place to stay, I started crying, and she hugged me. They raised me. Those people taught me how to fight, how to protect myself, how to survive, and how to live on my own terms without some military or Firefly getting in the way. That group gave me hope that morality and humanity isn't dead yet, that there are still people in this world capable of good. Ten years later they decided to migrate south. When we got to the Denver Q.Z. it was so unfamiliar and we weren't really sure how to get around it, but we met someone pretty helpful."

At this point, Emma looked over directly at Eric, who lowered his head in an almost bashful fashion.

Emma continued. "Eric helped us, said he could get us through the city without any trouble from soldiers or Hunters or anyone. And we almost made it… We were so close, and then someone broke cover before they should've and we got spotted. It was a bloodbath; I mean we didn't have a chance. Somehow, _somehow_ I escaped. I thought I was on my own again but a day later Eric found me. I'd lost my parents, I'd lost the family that raised me, and then here comes this guy who offers to help me find some place to stay."

"And what happened?" Kodi asked.

"I decided to just stay with him." Emma said.

The four went quiet. Emma thought to herself that it actually felt kind of good to tell someone, to release what she always kept bottled up. Jessa's voice broke the silence.

"I'm sorry you lost your parents like that."

Emma looked back into the fire. "I guess that's something we have in common."

"Something we all have in common." Eric added quietly.

"So that's why we're not going to the Zone." Kodi said.

Emma looked deep into the young boy's sapphire eyes. The emotional and vulnerable state she'd collapsed into during her backstory speech vanished, and a determined, maternal, fiery one took its place. "That's why. I've seen what goes on inside those walls, and how people actually live in there. I'm not going to put you through that."

* * *

The next day the snow was in full winter mode. Thick white bundles were draped over large evergreens and the snowfall covered the mountains, rendering the landscape a difficult to navigate sea of white. With no vehicles to clear the snow and heat the road surface, even the highways were sometimes only identifiable by the mile markers and the occasional speed limit sign. As the group began their ascent deeper into the mountains and higher in elevation, the frigid environment got more intense.

Eric had decided to stick to the highways as long as possible. After some thought, he'd finally remembered that Whitefish Lake was a place he had temporarily stayed the night years ago during the summer, prior to meeting Emma. He knew that the lake and likely its resort town as well were only accessible by horse trail or dirt roads, but he wanted to stay close to pavement as long as possible.

Having traveled into the heart of the Rockies several times before, Eric and Emma were well-prepared for the winter months. Kodi and Jessa, however, were traveling on the lighter side. Although they knew the harsh realities and cold of winter well, they had left their mountain home for the Denver Q.Z. during the heat of summer, and likely thought they would be safely inside the Zone when winter hit. They layered on clothes and covered their heads with scraps of fabric as best they could, but it was obvious they hadn't prepared for winter in the mountains.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up." Eric suddenly stopped, holding up a gloved hand. The three behind him stopped moving, listening. The road ahead turned sharply right, with a large hill obstructing their view of what lay on the other side of the hairpin.

"What?" Emma whispered.

Eric turned his head slightly towards her, but kept his eyes focused straight ahead and he held up his finger, pointing out the noise. Very faintly, amidst the whistling of the wind through the trees, those unmistakable clicks were heard.

"How the hell are they alive out here? It's freezing!" Kodi hissed.

Emma pulled her binoculars out. "Keep quiet." She crouched down and stealthily made her way up to the apex of the turn, then let out a short gasp before retreating a half step.

Eric made his way towards her slowly and saw her hand motions telling him in the signage they had devised that there were too many to count. "Dammit."

Eric, Kodi and Jessa came up behind Emma, who was surveying the scene before them. She and Eric had fought a group of Infected this large before and walked away, but just barely. They had fought viciously and won, but it was not an encounter she wished to repeat. Not more than a hundred yards away from them, an old military roadblock stood sentry. Its hastily erected steel walls covered one half of each lane, creating a bottleneck in the middle of the road that allowed only one car to pass at a time. The walls themselves rose up almost fifteen feet, with scaffolding visible where lookouts and gunmen once stood. A small military scout car that was not a Humvee was visible off of the road on the shoulder, its windshield shattered and several battle scars across its sheet metal. No less than a half dozen Infected were seen stumbling around the walls and from the sounds of it there were several more hidden from view.

"How do you want to deal with this?" Eric said.

Emma continued watching the beasts through her binoculars for a few seconds before responding. "If we can sneak by them I'd really love that. I think we could take them if we have to but let's not and say we _didn't."_

The snow made stealth much more difficult. In addition to the crunch of the snow underfoot, the thick flakes tumbling out of the sky created a curtain that dulled the natural sounds of the environment, amplifying even the slightest crack of a twig. Jessa crept along behind Eric, following the experienced man's movements. She'd had to sneak past Infected several times before, and had to shoot a few as well, but had never opened fire at one closer than a dozen yards. The thought of one of those things that close terrified her. She had never seen so many in one place. The four of them crept carefully through the fresh snow, numerous Infected wandering about not far from them. As they passed the roadblock itself, she saw Eric unsheathe his boot knife and grasp it into his hand. This was truthfully going better than she had expected. She thought for sure one would see them or…

Eric froze in front of her as a rabbit darted out of the snow, sprinting away from the roadblock. It was enough. The sound of the small animal bursting from the snow caught the attention of a single Clicker, who turned around and let out a short shriek. The throaty cry was enough to alert another Clicker, who threw its head back and roared.

Jessa fumbled with her pistol, struggling to retrieve it from her backpack's side pocket with hands sheathed in gloves too large for her small hands. She instinctively began backing away from the road as she grappled with the weapon second after agonizing second, her rising panic making her clumsy. The Clickers' cries had alerted the rest of the horde, and a dozen Runners exploded from behind the scout car.

"Oh, mother…!" Emma drew her pistol with lightning speed and fired, the bullet searing into the fungal plates of one of the Clicker's heads.

Eric jammed his knife into the trunk of a nearby tree and unclipped his shotgun, shouldering it and squeezing off a shot just seconds before a charging Runner would've come within grappling distance. He rammed the slide back, the empty shell flying out trailed by wisps of smoke enhanced by the icy air.

Jessa threw her gloves off desperately and reached back, drawing her weapon. She flipped the safety off but when she looked up, a Runner was sprinting directly at her. She willed herself to shoot, but her finger pressed harmlessly against the outside of the trigger guard as a shiver from either the cold or her own adrenaline-fueled terror made her clench her fist involuntarily. Her thumb stabbed the magazine release button, and the full clip ejected from the weapon and fell into the snow.

" _No!"_ Jessa screamed and tucked her index finger inside the trigger guard, commanding her finger to pull the trigger. The single round in the chamber exploded from the barrel, and she watched in horror as its vapor trail hurtled to the right of the Runner's head, missing him completely. His tattered coat hung in shreds over his body, and one sleeve had been ripped off revealing his bluish-gray skin. Splotches of skin were burned from the cold and cuts had appeared in places where the thin and frozen skin had cracked from movement. His actions were erratic and jerking as his muscles struggled to gain command over the frozen joints. His eyes were bloodshot, and seemed almost to glow bright red as he ran for her snarling and she saw even more Infected behind him, dashing drunkenly at her. Then there was a sudden concussive pop and the Runner stumbled, doubling over at the waist and falling to the ground. He scrabbled at the snow for traction and poised to leap at Jessa before there was another concussive pop and he collapsed face first into the snow, thrashing about for a few seconds before going limp.

Jessa lowered her wide eyes to the ground and reached a trembling hand out to pick up her fallen magazine. She shook the snow off of it and crammed it back into her pistol when Kodi stepped in front of her, his assault rifle set firmly into his shoulder. He kicked the Runner that had attacked Jessa to make sure he had killed it before backing up closer to her and lifting the weapon into a firing position. He took a sharp breath in and exhaled half of it before his finger squeezed the trigger. The military-issue ammunition rocketed into an approaching Infected, tearing through the fabric breast pocket of the Clicker's shirt and exploding out the back.

Eric, several Infected lying dead at his feet, pushed more shells into his shotgun and briefly whipped his attention over to the other three. Emma ripped an empty magazine out of her pistol and reached back to shove it into one of her magazine holders sewn onto her backpack. She grasped the full one next to it and slid it into her pistol, snapped the slide forward and took aim. But Eric was caught off guard by a young blonde boy holding an assault rifle. His left hand was clutching the hand guard confidently, and his right hand was seated on the grip with his right elbow folded down closely against his side. He fired, and Eric saw a Runner fall. Kodi swiveled at his waist and snapped to his next target, firing and another Runner buckled and fell into the snow.

A random agonized scream jolted Eric out of his observation as the last Clicker ambled towards him, flailing its arms wildly. Eric raised his shotgun and fired, hearing the buckshot rip through its target. He looked around as the area fell silent.

"You guys must have been doing work; I thought there were like twenty more of those things." He said.

Emma holstered her gun. She grabbed Jessa, who still was standing somewhat motionless, and led her by the arm away from the roadblock. "Let's not wait around to find out."

* * *

"Why was that thing there, anyways?" Kodi asked.

"What," Eric said, caught somewhat off guard by the question. "You mean the roadblock?"

"Yeah."

"Well, early in the outbreak the soldiers were trying to keep the Infected away from the Q.Z. but still wanted to try and reach non-Infected people who were in more remote places. They set up checkpoints on certain highways to make sure no one that wasn't supposed to be there tried sneaking up too close to the Zones. This, apparently, was one of them."

Kodi thought for a moment. "Those Clickers; they had uniforms on. Do you think they were soldiers?"

"Probably used to be."

"What about those Runners? They looked like they'd turned fairly recently and they were wearing, like, normal clothes."

Eric hesitated and then shrugged. "I don't know, kid. Let's just keep moving forward."

"Okay." Kodi said, dismissing the subject. He glanced back at Jessa, who was walking quietly alongside Emma. He faced forward again and adjusted the strap of his rifle.


	5. Frost

A clear blue sky, brushed with only a handful of wispy clouds, held a bright sun whose radiant heat did little to warm the frozen ground below. Water trickled down the calm mountain stream, sliding over smooth stones and gradual turns and banks. The fringes of the stream bore crystallized fractals of ice and frozen slivers from droplets that had attempted to escape the placid flow.

Deep snow gave way with a soft crunch to small footsteps. The young girl breathed in. Beneath her thick gray hoodie, a men's medium-size flannel, and her short-sleeved shirt she felt her chest shudder as the frigid air entered. She exhaled, watching her breath escape and dance in the breeze. Sniffling, she brushed a few wandering strands of blonde out of her face and crouched down at the stream. She removed her tattered gloves and gingerly set them down on the snow.

"I don't want to get you wet." She told them.

Jessa slid her backpack off of her and opened it, taking out four canteens. The journey from Boulder to wherever this lake resort is probably was a day's journey during the summer. But the harsh Rocky Mountain winter changed everything. She remembered Eric saying something about the weather patterns actually changing over time, that twenty years without excessive automobile traffic and human interference had allowed nature to sink into its ancient habits. What was it he said? Winters just keep getting more and more brutal, or something along those lines. She supposed that made sense.

"Eep!" Jessa retracted her hand from testing the water, letting out a small squeak. "Frick. Okay, yeah, it's definitely cold."

It wasn't just the abundance of deep snow that made everything so disorienting in the mountains. High winds ripping around the peaks and tearing across the landscape made each day seem futile, like they weren't making any progress. The voyage was already in its fourth day, and the four of them had gotten turned around and lost several times. They'd backtrack, find their bearings, and keep moving in the right direction, but it still seemed like they were getting more and more lost. Jessa was overcome with relief today when Eric recognized the name of a campground relatively close to the lake. They had decided to stay there for the night in a small welcome center.

Jessa closed Eric's canteen and dropped it into her backpack, feeling the fresh, frigid water sloshing around. She filled Emma's and her brother's, taking a break to shove her freezing hands into her pants pockets. She stood there for a moment, savoring the warmth, then reached down to grab her own canteen and plunged it into the brook.

"How was it barely snowing in Boulder and winter-damn-wonderland up here?" Jessa muttered. She silently cursed the cheerful song her uncle had sung when she was young. Walking in this wonderland of winter sucked.

She pulled her canteen up and tossed it into her backpack. As she zipped it up, a dark colored and out-of-place shape in her peripherals moved. Not even taking time to gasp, Jessa whirled around, almost falling into the stream. A young girl, likely only a few years older than Jessa, stood a few yards away. Dark reddish-brown hair cascaded down one side of her face, barely concealing an eyebrow whose line was interrupted by a small scar. A dark red hoodie peeked out underneath the heavy dark green jacket that sheathed her small frame, and the sleeves were dirty and darkened toward the cuffs. She stood her ground firmly in thin sneakers, small droplets of dried blood laying on the white rubber toe piece. Held confidently and adeptly in her hands was a lightly colored recurve bow not unlike Jessa's, and the girl had a broadhead notched in its string pulled back close to her mouth. More arrows peered out over her shoulder, packed into a backpack whose shoulder straps were visible hanging off of the girl's boldly set shoulders.

"Hi." Jessa blurted.

The girl's brow furrowed slightly, confused by the simplistic response. Her shoulders drooped slightly in surprise to the blonde girl's casual reaction, but a millisecond later she regained her dominant posture and adjusted her grip on the bowstring. She countered with an equally simple reply. "What's up."

Jessa made a waving gesture behind her. "If you need to use the creek, I'm done."

Again, the girl hesitated, appearing thrown off by Jessa's general friendliness. She spoke again in a gentle alto that was composed yet also assertive. "You alone?"

"Well, the others are back at camp…" Jessa started.

"Is anyone following you, watching us?" The girl said, the in-charge voice not wavering.

Jessa shook her head. As she did she noticed the faint silhouette of a horse in the far distance from where the girl had come. A large bundle of something was being dragged behind the horse by crude lashing. The bundle looked like it was carefully wrapped up in a protective and sheltering manner.

The girl noticed Jessa's attention shift away from her and she stepped to the side, blocking Jessa's view of the horse and its bundle. "Eyes over here buddy."

Deep down, Jessa didn't think this girl was dangerous. She seemed deadly, but not dangerous and there was a big difference. From what she had gathered during their few moments of interaction, this girl wasn't afraid to do whatever was necessary to survive, but was analyzing and comprehending Jessa's neutral conduct and nonthreatening appearance. Jessa noticed that the side of her backpack that was facing the girl was the side that clearly showed her pistol, the grip visible outside of the pocket. Jessa raised her hands in front of her and slowly took a few steps away from her pack.

"I'm not going to go for my gun," She said lightly. "I'm not threatening you. Okay?"

The girl's hard expression softened slightly and she slowly released the bowstring while lowering its aim to the snowy ground in front of them both. She kept the arrow notched and her fingers on the string. "You're a little young to be out here alone."

 _So are you._ Jessa shrugged. "I'm not alone; like I said, the others are back at camp."

"How many are back there?" The girl said, interest growing in her voice.

"Three," Jessa said steadily. "I have an extra bandana if you need to cover your face or something…"

"I'm fine," The girl cut in dismissively. "What about medicine."

"You mean like, to heal wounds and stuff?" Jessa asked.

A momentary flash of suspicion glinted in the girl's eyes but it passed and she nodded. "Something like that."

Jessa twisted her mouth in sympathy and shook her head. "Sorry."

The girl's shoulders sagged a bit. She looked at the ground.

"They probably have a fire going by now, though. I'm headed…"

"I'm fine." The girl said again quickly, distrust returning to her face. She tugged on her bowstring slightly.

That was when Jessa saw it; this girl was terribly afraid. A small gleam in the girl's eyes, a tiny twitch of her hand, and a slight ruffle of her deep red hair as a frigid breeze blew through it. She carried herself confidently, powerfully, and skillfully, but Jessa could see desperation and fear coursing through this brave young girl.

Jessa tilted her head slightly. "You sure you don't need a place to stay?"

"I'm sure."

"Okay," Jessa said. "…I don't blame you. It's hard to find people you can trust."

The girl's expression remained, but her attitude and vocal inflection softened. "Well, I'll agree with you on that one." She sounded tired, not physically sleepy but emotionally drained and psychologically exhausted.

The two stood there for a few moments, neither one moving, neither one saying a word, the stream trickling calmly. It was almost peaceful; for a second, both girls relished in the serenity of the moment and the tranquility in the midst of the chaos.

"I'll be on my way then, if I may." Jessa said, gesturing to her backpack.

"Leave that pistol where it belongs." The girl said. Her assertive voice was back, but she didn't raise her bow.

Jessa slowly slipped her backpack onto her shoulders, taking care to ensure that the girl never lost sight of the gun. Jessa began to walk back the way she had come, away from the girl and the silhouette of the horse. She paused and turned around. The girl tugged on her bowstring.

"Hey," Jessa said in a gentle, friendly tone. "Be careful out here."

The girl's shoulders relaxed a bit. A breeze nudged her dark red hair and it unfurled out briefly, waving. Her bright green eyes glistened underneath her valiant and determined expression as the snow reflected luminously and she looked at Jessa. "You, too."


	6. David

_Well._

 _A lot has happened since my last entry. Winter is definitely here now, the mountains are covered in snow. We're trying to make our way to a resort town near Whitefish Lake. I think I remember the name of the town was Silver Lake. It's pretty remote, and the snow isn't helping at all. We'll get there; last night we holed up in a welcome center that was sitting in this old campground. The lake isn't far and we should get there today._

 _Oh, and Emma and I have kids._

 _We found these two siblings just hiding in a house. The brother has this big military assault rifle. The little guy is deadly with it when he gets in the zone. Speaking of zones, these kids were wanting to head into the Denver Q.Z. before we found them. I don't think they realized how bad a place those can be until Em' explained it._

Eric scanned his writing for a moment and then closed his journal, dropping it into his backpack and putting it back on. The welcome center they had stayed in was a small but sheltered one. The campground was in a remote enough area that Eric didn't worry about Infected, but was still cautious. Areas like this, in his experience, were prime locations for Bandits.

Eric watched Kodi wiping down one of his magazines with an old, ripped blue rag. He had noticed that this little one took great care in maintaining his weapon, and was still impressed by the level of firearm knowledge and skill he seemed to possess. While the recoil of the weapon indeed shook his small frame to a much greater degree than most other people who would be firing one, Eric didn't think that mattered. He had watched soldiers open fire fully automatic and just blast rounds with little precision. Kodi, on the other hand, carefully and methodically aimed each shot he fired, working on semi-auto to conserve ammunition and retain his accuracy. It was impressive, indeed. It was curious; Eric had expected this boy to be no different than the dozen other kids he had escorted, but this one was different. He thought logically, he was just the right amount of aggressive, he was protective, and he had the perfect trust issues needed to survive in this world. The more Eric studied him, the more he was struck by how similar Kodi's entire persona was to…

"Here she comes." Emma said as she cinched up her backpack.

Eric's thoughts were cut short as Jessa opened the door and walked in. She turned around silently as the others retrieved their canteens from her backpack.

"Run into any trouble?" Eric asked her.

"Nope."

"Good."

"Hey, you need a better coat?" Kodi held up a black kid's-sized winter coat. Red stripes ran down the heavily padded sides, and numerous pockets were scattered around the exterior. A large hood drooped on the back, lined by thick dark colored fur.

Jessa shrugged. "Not really. That looks really bulky. I guess I'm warm enough in just this… Is that fur?"

"Yeah." Emma said, glancing over her shoulder.

Jessa stroked the fur with her gloved hand. "Is this, like, rabbit or something?"

Emma chuckled. "Well, it's fake. But probably."

Jessa looked sideways at her. "Fake fur… Hm. That's weird." Jessa dropped the coat onto the ground and followed the other three away from the campground.

* * *

Eric walked through the snow, his hands tied behind his back with thick rope. His jaw was set in an angry clamp as he trudged forward, the other three following behind him with their hands tied as well. Six men, four armed with shotguns and two with high-caliber hunting rifles, walked in a formation that pinned the four survivors in the middle. Their bulky coats hid unknown items that could be heard rustling and clanking around.

Eric and the three had barely crest a hill within view of the lake when the six men ambushed them, coming out of nowhere and pointing their weapons directly at them. Before they could even reach for their weapons, the four were surrounded, outgunned, and with no options. Eric decided to comply, as he was certain that a close quarters six-versus-four standoff would not end in their favor. Someone would've died, the only question was who. So, the four now walked towards what they knew was probably the town they had originally been headed towards to begin with, but now they were entering the city limits as prisoners. The sick irony disgusted Eric.

As the town came into view, Kodi saw multiple old storefronts in shambles, and buildings that had been turned into crude shelters and homes. The skeletal architectural frames remained, but wooden beams and tin roofs had been hastily implanted in certain places, likely in an attempt to safeguard the dwellings as quickly as possible. Kodi felt, however, that there was something else these buildings were protecting against. It didn't seem like there would be a very large population of Infected up in these mountains. They were well removed from the cities and their large populations, and the general quietness of the mountains offered little audible stimulation for the echolocation beasts. Even so, it was obvious that this town was heavily guarded by its inhabitants. A man stood atop an old semi-trailer, grasping a double barreled shotgun. Another one holding a 9mm pistol stared at the four new visitors as they passed. Kodi glanced into a building and saw the silhouette of a man raising an object which appeared to be a butcher's knife, hacking downward. Kodi's brow furrowed, and his eyes widened as he tried to peer closer from the distance he was at. Was that…?

"Hey, keep moving. Fuckin' kid." One of the men pushed him forward with the barrel of his shotgun and Kodi was jerked ahead, leaving the image of whatever was transpiring in that building behind him. He looked at Jessa, trying to position himself between her sightline and the building. If what he thought he had seen in there was true, it wasn't anything she needed to see, and he shivered slightly, trying to push it out of his memory and focus on their current situation.

The six captors led them to another dilapidated old building, appearing to be a house, and one of them opened the door, motioning for them to enter. As they did, the cold of the outside was suddenly vaporized by heavy warmth radiating from an iron fire pit in the middle of the floor. There were certain places where the carpet had been ripped apart, exposing the rotting wood floor underneath. Random pieces of furniture were scattered across the living room, and a tarp nailed over a broken window waved casually as the wind struck it. The old ceiling lamp was gone, the socket vacant.

"Found something." One of the men called into the building.

A thin, wiry man entered the room from the back of the building. He looked at the four new additions with piercing eyes underneath a heavy brow lined with wrinkles. A thick old work jacket covered his torso and arms, and an empty machete scabbard was slung over his back. He spoke past a short black beard in an airy, grainy voice. "Any particular reason their hands are tied?"

Despite the nonthreatening actions and neutral vocal meter of this man, Jessa felt herself shiver at the sight of him, as if something about him just felt… Off.

The man that had poked Kodi with his gun spoke. "Well, yeah. We didn't want them to…"

"Cut those ropes off their hands. They're not animals." The thin faced man said.

"But…"

"Now." It was a calm, controlled voice.

There was a pause, a moment of hesitation from all six men, but one of them opened their folding knife and began sawing gently at the rope binding Emma's hands. She glared at him as he did, never breaking her deathly stare from his eyes. He glanced up, locking eyes with her, and immediately returned his gaze to his task of removing her ropes. As Kodi's rope was cut, the man punched the magazine release button on his assault rifle and pulled the clip out, setting it on a table behind him. Kodi stood motionless, choosing not to react for fear of spurring any aggression. He fleetingly wondered why he specifically had been targeted to be disarmed, but reasoned it was likely because his rifle posed the highest caliber of threat. It was strange, though, how they focused on his shiny black assault rifle and not on Eric's pistol, well within reach in his back pocket. _We'll get out of this. We have to. We just have to be patient, like Eric said when we had to sneak by those Clickers._

The thin man nodded his head to the six captors. "Now leave us alone. I want to talk with them; and I'd rather you gentlemen not be here with your guns."

"David…" One of the men started to protest but the thin bearded man raised his hand.

"You've done enough. Thank you. Now get." He said and waved his hand. After another bout of hesitation, the six slowly exited the building and closed the door behind them. Jessa saw the silhouette of one of the men linger at the door for a moment before departing.

Kodi stole a glance up at Eric, who was looking directly at this man whom one of their captors had called 'David.'

The man eased himself into a chair on the far side of the room. "So I'm David."

In a flash, Eric reached around to his pocket and whipped his Colt 1911 out, flipping the safety off and bringing the barrel up directly to David's head. "Let us go."

David, seemingly unfazed, said in a calm voice. "Okay. Go, get." He motioned with his hands to the doorway.

"Eric…" Emma reached towards him. None of this added up in her mind, and she wasn't about to do anything this man said, even if it involved leaving his presence. She sensed a scheming, clever mind behind this friendly and composed appearance. She had met men like this before; they were smart, cunning, and never did anything without intending for it to be beneficial to them. Oh yes, she'd met many men like this, and none of them were worth trusting or listening to.

"No one's stopping you," David said. "I'm not keeping you here against your will at all. I even let you keep your weapons."

"You might not wish you had done that." Eric said threateningly.

David leaned his elbow on one knee as he spoke directly to Eric. "Tell me, son. When you walk out of my town where will you go? Further up the mountain? Down into the cities?"

Eric held his pistol and his aggressive expression unflinchingly. "None of your damn business, that's where."

"Or maybe somewhere the kids will be safe." David looked at Kodi and Jessa, a half-smile creeping onto his weathered and sunken in face.

Eric stepped between them, his gaze hardening even more.

David continued. "Look, I realize that you probably are very protective of these two, and it's obvious you want everyone to be safe, right? I imagine you've been looking for a place to stay, a place for them to be, for quite some time."

"Don't think you can play mind games with me." Eric said in a low voice.

"Oh, no one's playing any games; believe me. These mountains don't take too kindly to games of any sort. I'll be up front with you people; we have women and children in this town, we have for quite some time. They're all well-fed, warm, and protected. This is a safe place, a place that these people can call home. This is the town you've been looking for. We can give you a place to stay, we can give you a steady food supply and shelter from the cold, and in return you can help our community grow and prosper. How many people get to live like this nowadays, hm? We work together. We could use people like you."

Eric didn't move. "I guess we just thought this place was occupied by people a little more welcoming. And sane."

Kodi listened to the man silently. It made sense; both parties had something to gain in this. David's town would grow in population and strength, and the four of them would have shelter and allies to protect them. But every time David spoke Kodi felt uneasy. He wasn't sure what it was; perhaps the calmness with which this man spoke, as if he felt all of the cards were in his hand. As much as he appreciated a man with confidence, he couldn't shake the feeling that David was baiting them like a bass to a worm. He wondered why Eric hadn't just shot this man, but he supposed that Eric didn't want the gunshot to alert anyone else to come bursting in, guns blazing.

Eric remained in his stance. "I have no reason to believe anything you're saying, and you have no reason to believe anything I say. I'll get the hell out of your town, you stay the hell away from us, and we'll both be fine."

"But _will_ you?" David leaned back in his chair, turning his head slightly away from Eric but keeping his eyes glued to him. "I'll be fine, I'll be right here warm and protected in the town. But out in the mountains, out on those harsh slopes, will you be fine? Will your lady be fine…?"

 _"That's enough."_ Eric stepped forward, but as he did he heard the door open behind him. He snapped his head to look and saw two of the men that had captured him standing in the doorway. One man was pointing both barrels of his shotgun at Jessa, the closest one to the door.

"If I were you," David said calmly. "I'd lower that pistol of yours. You might get someone hurt."

Eric gritted his teeth, desperately wanting to slam David's head into a slab of concrete. Slowly, he lowered his pistol but kept it in his hand.

"Now drop it." David said.

"What do you want from us?" Eric asked desperately.

Jessa flinched as the man at the door took a heavy and loud step forward, asserting his presence and reminding everyone in the room where his barrels were pointing. Eric immediately dropped his pistol and it clattered onto the floor. He glared at David.

"See? Was that so hard?" David said playfully.

Emma spoke up. "Look, we obviously aren't going to join your little town. Just let us go before I jam my boot down your throat."

David stood from the chair and sighed. "I can see we're not getting anywhere quickly. Maybe you'll be more inclined to talk when you've warmed up a bit and gotten some rest. The cold must be impairing your decisions. I think the lot of you see me as a bad person, but trust me, I'm not _that_ bad. I just do what I have to do, just like everyone else in this world. Why don't we chat about this when you're ready to be a little more… realistic?"

Emma spoke again, shocked. "You can't just hold us here!"

"Of course I can. After all, this is _my_ town. Now if you were residents, you might have a say in the matter. But as it is right now, you're all merely guests. If I see that you might need some extra incentive to obey, I'll make sure you receive that. It's amazing what people are capable of, wouldn't you agree?" His calm words dripped with a sickening friendliness and casual meter.

Emma stared at him, unsure what she could even say at this point.

David's turned his attention to the second man at the door, the first still holding his shotgun in Jessa's direction. "Go and get Jack. Tell him he'll watch over our guests tonight."

The man nodded and vanished.

David walked over to Eric, addressing the man remaining at the door. "If this stubborn, trigger-happy one tries anything or so much as moves, shoot the girl."

Jessa closed her eyes, feeling the cold metal of the shotgun's barrels press against the side of her head. She quelled the will to scream, to shiver, or to reach for her gun. She simply stood there motionless, emotionless, and waited. _Eric, please…_

Eric stared at David with hatred burning in his eyes as he seethed through gritted teeth. "You wouldn't dare."

"Oh, I would dare," David said, eerily cheerful and still composed. "So it looks like her survival is a matter of _your_ cooperation, isn't it? Now, I'll be taking that backpack."

Eric burned the image of the shotgun against Jessa's head into his mind, commanding his muscles to stay frozen and not to bash David's brains out. David removed Eric's backpack and set it on a table. He approached Emma, who tilted her shoulders back and let her pack drop off of her.

"There, take it." She muttered bitterly, making sure David heard. He stooped to retrieve her backpack and stepped away from her, putting it on the table next to Eric's. Kodi followed Emma's lead and his backpack slid off of him and he stepped away from it, holding a hateful gaze at the man as he took it and deposited it on the table, then walked over to Jessa.

Kodi wanted to do something. He wanted nothing more than to kill this David and run away from this place. He wanted him to get away from his sister and leave them alone. But as long as that barrel was pressed against her head, there was nothing he could do. By the time he'd cross the floor halfway to her, it'd already be too late. He still wasn't sure if David was bluffing or not, but neither he nor Eric or Emma was willing to put Jessa's life in the balance to find out. There was no other option but to wait for it to be over.

"Hold on," David said gently, looking down at Jessa. "Let's put that bow in a safer place. Don't move. I'd hate for you to bump that barrel; those triggers can be so touchy, you know."

Jessa's fingers twitched. The cold steel of the shotgun on her temple was the only motivation stopping her from drawing an arrow and cramming it into David's eye socket. She closed her eyes tightly and clenched her fists tighter as she felt him pull the bowstring off of her chest and raise the bow away from her backpack. He lifted the weapon past her arm and set it on the table. He then reached over and slid the straps of her backpack off of her shoulders, removing the backpack and setting it with the others on the table. Jessa felt him step away from her, but couldn't relax.

"There you go, kiddo," David said to her. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Jessa opened her eyes and turned her head to face him directly as she lifted her chin valiantly. She did her best to replicate the assertive and in-control voice with which the girl she'd met at the stream had used, and spoke in a dangerous, challenging, defiant voice. "Go fuck yourself."


End file.
